The Importance of Being Forgetful

A landmark study is the first ever to record visual images of the human brain as it actively suppresses distracting memories. These findings reveal why remembering details isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Dr. Anthony Wagner, senior author of the study conducted at Stanford University, points out that people often have a difficult time remembering new passwords, because our brains get distracted by all of the other past and present passwords rattling around in our heads. Dr. Wagner says that if the brain can block out the distractions, or essentially forget the unnecessary digits or words, the easier it is to remember the new ones.

Michael Anderson, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oregon who is familiar with the study, points out that according to this type of research, an ideal memory improvement program “would include a course on how to impair your memory. Your head is full of a surprising number of things that you don’t need to know.”

It seems counter-intuitive, but being good at “forgetting” is what allows some people to have a great memory. During the study, the more efficient participants were at forgetting irrelevant data, the more accurate their memory became in terms of energy expended.

The study utilized a word-memorization test to demonstrate that the brain chooses to remember memories it thinks are most relevant, while it actively suppresses similar, but less used information. This process seems to lighten the cognitive load and helps prevent confusion.

"Whenever you’re engaging in remembering, the brain adapts. It’s constantly re-weighting memories," says team-member Brice Kuhl, "In this simple test, we see it reverse memory to weaken competing memories. This is something that probably happens a lot in the real world."

In essence, the brain could not work quickly and efficiently if it did not have the capacity to forget what it determines as irrelevant. The human brain doesn’t like to be cluttered with what it deems unnecessary information. That may be why many of us can’t remember most of what we learned in college algebra.

What the study wasn’t able to explain however, is why our brains think remembering lines from Shaun of the Dead is more important than recalling where we left the car keys…

Posted by Rebecca Sato

*The study referenced in this post can be found in the in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

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